Matt Trowbridge: Green Bay and Chicago Bears are trying to run too much

Monday

Sep 26, 2011 at 12:01 AMSep 26, 2011 at 11:46 AM

CHICAGO — The Packers passed at will against the Bears.

“It’s that Tampa 2 defense. You can do anything against that,” said tight end Jermichael Finley, who caught three touchdown passes in Green Bay’s 27-17 victory Sunday.

Matt Trowbridge

CHICAGO — The Packers passed at will against the Bears.

“It’s that Tampa 2 defense. You can do anything against that,” said tight end Jermichael Finley, who caught three touchdown passes in Green Bay’s 27-17 victory Sunday.

That’s sure how it looked at the start. Ryan Grant ran 13 yards on the first play of the game, followed by Aaron Rodgers passes of 12, 19 and 11 yards. Four plays. Four first downs.

But then it stopped. Just as it did last year in the NFC title game, when the Packers took a two-touchdown lead in the first 19 minutes and then never scored another offensive point in the final 41 minutes, eking out a 21-14 victory on a defensive touchdown.

“Each time we play them, we have success initially on the opening drive and then they do something and fight and scratch and claw, and then it becomes a dogfight,” receiver Greg Jennings (nine catches for 119 yards) said. “We never can keep that pedal down and get them out of the game from start to finish like we want.”

That’s because the Packers don’t try to keep the pedal down.

Their offense becomes stoppable for the same reason the Bears’ does: Both teams overrate their ability to run.

After running only 12 times last week, offensive coordinator Mike Martz publicly apologized for not running more. Yet the Bears ran for only 13 yards Sunday, their lowest total in more than a half-century. Just as the Packers expected.

“I know there was emphasis in the media on (Matt) Forte running the ball, but we knew if we took care of business, he wouldn’t be a factor,” nose tackle B.J. Raji said.

Ryan Grant and James Starks weren’t factors either. The Packers ran for 100 yards, but lost a key fourth-quarter fumble and got almost all their yards on eight carries. The Packers averaged 0.7 yard on their other 21 rushes.

The same thing happened in the NFC title game, where the Packers ran more than they passed (32 times to 30) and gained 120 yards. But 25 of those runs averaged a meager 1.6 yards per carry.

“You’d rather have 10 every play, but sometimes it doesn’t work out like that,” Grant said. “It’s not always going to be a pretty play.”

That, in turn, leads to more ugly plays.

The Packers passed on nine of their first 10 plays, gaining 92 yards and seven first downs.

They then ran on both first and second down twice in a row, leaving them with third-and-10 and third-and-7. The result: two punts and one sack.

That’s the only way the Bears slowed down Aaron Rodgers (28-for-38 for 297 yards and three touchdowns).

The Bears’ running game left Jay Cutler in even worse straits. The first three times the Bears faced third down, they needed Cutler to gain 9, 16 and 7 yards.

It’s hard enough for the Bears to move the ball, much less convert third-and-16 against the defending Super Bowl champions.

“When you put a team in second-and-long and third-and-long situations, it opens up your playbook as a defense and breaks a team’s will,” Packers cornerback Charles Woodson said.

The Bears put themselves there.

When they let Cutler throw on first down, the result was often a big play.

The Bears’ three longest pass plays of the game all came on first down: 40 yards to Johnny Knox, 37 yards to Devin Hester and a 32-yard touchdown to Kellen Davis.

“There were spurts of good football,” Cutler said.
That started with Chicago’s offensive line and its unexpectedly strong pass blocking.

“Those guys gave me all the time in the world,” Cutler said.
But they gave Matt Forte nowhere to run.

So why not pass until a defense proves it can stop you?

That’s how Green Bay beat Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl.

Running nowhere only stops yourself.

Matt Trowbridge can be reached at 815-987-1383 or mtrowbridge@rrstar.com.

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